Explore the Narrative structure of your three main texts (30 marks)

There are two ways in which narrative structure can be approached which is the way the text is ordered and put together,

The first method of a narrative structure is put forward by Todorov who says the order of narrative structure is put forward by Todorov and he describes narrative structure to be in the following order.

Equilibrium- everything within the story is balanced and is at peace meaning that it is calm
Disruption- this is where an imbalance is created making an issue within the story Recognition- where the characters within the story recognise that there has mean a disruption to the balance
Repair- is where the characters attempt to restore the balance and eradicate the issue 
New equilibrium- a new balance is created within the story bringing everything back to normal 

 

The narrative structure for Pain and gain to a certain extent follows this rule of Todorov narrative theory with one of the characters in the story following this rule of Victor Kershaw with his state of equilibrium is where he is having private training sessions with one of the other Main protagonists in the story. The state of disruption is where Victor Kershaw is kidnapped by the other main protagonists and is subjected to extreme levels of brutal torture. The recognition of this is when he is shoved in a car which is then set on fire and then he is ran over and wakes up in intensive car in hospital. Repair is where he asks a detective to help him out and to help him get back what the main protagonists have stolen from him and for him to get his revenge on the people that had nearly killed him in the first place because they wanted his money and possessions. New equilibrium is achieved when the people who tortured victor Kershaw are locked up in prison and have life sentences and victor Kershaw gets his life back to normal without the main protagonists inferring in his life.

 In the movie of iron sky which is about the story of what happened to the Nazis after the war and they retreated to the dark side of the moon. The story unfolds when America come to explore this side of the moon and one of the astronauts, James Washington is captured and must help the Nazis return to earth to get a device to power their death machine back on the dark side of the moon.

The narrative structure for this film can go under Todorov’s narrative theory. Equilibrium in this story is in the beginning when America first contact the astronauts who have landed on the dark side of the moon surface. The state of disruption occurs when one of the astronauts is shot in the head by the leader of the Nazi party Klaus Alder and then James Washington is captured by the Nazi party. The recognition of such is when James Washington figures out that the Nazi party have experimented on him turning him from a black man into a white man. The attempt of repair is when they return try to kill Klaus on earth but then he escapes back to the dark side of the moon to start up his death machine buried underneath the surface of the moon. New equilibrium is achieved when James Washington returns to the dark side of the moon to kill Klaus Alder and destroy his giant and operational death machine that the Nazi party has crafted to destroy planet earth and all life that exists on the planet. To an extent this film follows this narrative with alternatively it ending with a disruption to this equilibrium again and causing a repeat narrative that continues over in to the sequel of iron sky. The disruption ending that this film leaves on is when all the nations in the world are at war with each other over the possession of a priceless chemical called Helium 3 that is only found on the dark side of the moon and to which this leaves directly into the narrative that continues into the sequel to iron sky

we see that iron sky follows the path of Todorov's theory but also challenges this with continuing into his theory on repeat in which the story ends onto the beginning part disruption of Todorov's theory

 Finally, the narrative structure for Skyfall can also come under Todorov’s theory. The modern reboot of the James bond takes place across several locations as James bond is on the hunt for a rogue ex MI6 agent who is leaking other agent names and who eventually wants to see M dead, the movie Skyfall is one the latest in the new line of James bond films with this one being before the latest one spectre, Skyfall was released in 2012 worldwide.

The equilibrium that exists within Skyfall isn’t present as such as it starts on more of a disruption with James bond having to chase a bad guy through the streets of an Indian city and in the end of the scene which is where the film officially starts James bond is shot by one of his fellow field agents and falls into the river below. The recognition could be argued to be where she realises that bond is dead and she has lost her best asset to find what she was after or could be argued it is when MI6 gets blown up and a load of her MI6 agents are dead and she gets bond back as he wasn’t dead. An attempt of repair would be when bond captures Mr Silva somewhere in china and then he escapes his capture and is rogue again to go and try and kill M.  A new equilibrium is when James bond kills Mr Silva by stabbing him In the back but also in the process M dies but at the end James bond is being given his orders by the new M

 we see that this film completely follows the theory put forward by Todorov with the storyline completely following the narrative structure that this theory suggests. in other cases many films produced today challenge this theory by mixing up the order of which the narrative structure is laid out. Many films today mix up the order and for example in the case of Iron Sky can have multiple sets of a particular part of the narrative structure and end or start of different part. In Iron sky we see that we have two sets of disruption, with it ending on a disruption, whilst some films completely ignore the narrative structure in the case of pulp fiction which completely ditches the narrative structure theory and substitutes its with its story being mixed up with the ending of the story being the beginning and also the actual ending